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Gloria Steinem: A View From 1990s Moscow

“Keep women’s solidarity in mind: Don’t forget how we empower each other through mutual support,” she reminded us.

“You and your women friends are doing the same thing that Gloria Steinem did in the US back in the days,” said my American colleague after attending a media event on reproductive health that our Association of Women Journalists had organized. I had just come back from a United Nations conference on population and development, during which its Russian NGO participants set up an alliance in support of reproductive health. Around that time, the Russian government adopted its national family-planning program, which very soon proved to be strikingly effective (not least owing to its extensive coverage by the media). The year was 1994.

Granted, my colleagues and I were delighted by the comparison of our work with Steinem’s. We were familiar with Ms. and read it closely. Steinem’s image, as the founder of the magazine and of the Ms. Foundation for Women, was captivating—especially so due to the recent Russian publication of a book, Profiles of Female Genius: Thirteen Creative Women Who Changed the World, by Gene Landrum, in which she was one of the central figures.

We were inspired by Steinem even though the issues that we had to deal with in Russia differed. For example, in the Soviet Union abortion was not only legal but for many years remained virtually the only method of family planning; for us, it was important to prioritize the topics of contraception and reproductive health, which were novel for the Russian media. But many among Steinem’s concerns were close to our hearts: domestic violence, sexual slavery, and sexism as a type of discrimination. All this sounded unfamiliar in post-Soviet Russia. As its society was sick and tired of the Soviet past and sought to liberate itself from it, a new trend toward patriarchy was shaping up: The media known as liberal were glorifying women’s so-called “natural calling,” while newly emerging tabloids were filled with sexist ads. Playboy was widely viewed as a model of quality media. New women’s magazines were seeking to emulate Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan.

In this environment, Ms. magazine was a major guiding star for those who were at odds with blooming sexism. (This was how our Association of Women Journalists came into being; notably, it included both women and men in its ranks.) What we liked about Steinem’s approach was her point that feminism was not directed against men but rather was about the freedom of choice—along with her notion of the personal being political.

These were some of the ideas that nurtured You and We, the magazine that was founded in 1992 by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Colette Schulman as a platform for........

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